The Mysterious ACF Cabal

A lot of this ACF discussion is going over old
ground, but I just want to make one point.

Steve
said:
"ACF, as it is right now, is a very informal
organization *to say the least.* If it wants the year-in,
year-out credibility that NAQT has, it needs to be a
little more formal."

"But with a completely
opaque process, there's no information reaching we (sic)
players..."

"In sum, ACF has the feel of being an ad hoc
committee, and that's dangerous."

You repeatedly
stress the fact that ACF is an informal organization.
And you're certainly right about that. But is that
informality necessarily a bad ("dangerous") thing?

ACF
is not a corporation; it doesn't have officers, a
stable of writers, and a bunch of precise guidelines.
Basically it's four or five guys who are trying to do
EVERYTHING themselves, not for glory (and certainly not for
money), but because they want to put on a good
tournament. I think the reason there are only a few people in
charge is because they're the few people who care enough
to do something to keep ACF going.

The guys
running ACF are students like everybody else. Given that
they're going to classes, taking exams, writing papers,
preparing lesson plans, grading and all the rest of it
while simultaneously trying to edit packets into shape,
I'm not terribly surprised that they don't have the
time to ruminate on every last contingency.

If
people are genuinely concerned about the perceived
insularity of the ACF direction, maybe they should offer to
help: the more people involved, the more open ACF will
be. But if nobody volunteers, then of course the core
of contributors will remain
small.

Alice
wearing a coat and tie right now to make my statements
more credible

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